


A hunt for safety

by Kat92



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Season 5 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:21:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3482891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat92/pseuds/Kat92
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU version of season 5 and (maybe) beyond. With a few things changed, the dynamic and members of the group has changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's a long road home

**Author's Note:**

> This is very much an experiment, any feedback will be very welcomed. So would suggestions to what you might like to see in future chapters.

“Mama.. Mama!” Her sweet voice called out to her. Even in her sleep it still made her lips curl up into a smile. Despite how the world was now, Carol rarely had any bad dreams. She supposed it was because reality was harsh enough, the only thing scary about the dreams, were that it was so highly likely that they might come true.

 

“Let her sleep” another voice joined in, it was only then Carol realized that she wasn’t actually sleeping, but just lying on the ground with her eyes closed.  
She recognized the voice of course and couldn’t help but peek with just one eye at the two people standing not too far from where she was sleeping. It wasn’t so much seeing them that surprised her, but more how high in the sky the sun was. They really should have woken her up by now. But then she remembered that they had no food, so there wouldn’t be any breakfast. It almost made her want to just go back to sleep, but before she could manage that, she saw that she was being watched. “She’s not sleeping”  
Carol gave up pretending and opened her eyes to see both Sophia and Daryl looking at her. “You should have woken me earlier”

 

“Wasn’t any need to” Daryl replied simply, before walking off. Carol slowly sat up, trying to cover up the ache at her side and in her back, but didn’t quite manage to. It was not easy on her back to sleep on the ground like they did now, both because of years of abuse and because of the recent injury she had had. Sophia looked at her, in a way that clearly asked if she was okay. Carol nodded reassuringly and patted the ground next to her, where Sophia then sat down.

 

Holding up a very worn elastic band, Sophia let her mother know just why she had come over to sit next to her. “I thought Beth did your hair now” Carol said as she took the elastic band and waited for Sophia to turn around. “She’s busy and Rick says we’re leaving soon” Gathering her hair in her hands, Carol started trying to untangle it with her fingers, as well as she could. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

 

“Daryl said not to”

 

“Since when do you do everything he tells you?” Carol asked, suppressing a smile

 

“When he’s making sense.. you look exhausted mom”

 

“I’m fine” Sophia’s hair was long now, about three inches below her shoulders. It suited her, but it was difficult in this hot weather. So she insisted on it being in a braid most of the time. Despite the hair still being very entangled on itself, Carol managed to get it braided within a few minutes. She had done so many braids in the last couple of years that her hands worked more or less on their own. “All done, Sweetheart” she proclaimed and placed a kiss on the top of her head. A moment later Sophia was on her feet and on her way back to Beth and Tara.

 

\-------------------

 

“Napoleon”

 

“Nobel”

 

“Lazarus”

 

“Who’s he?”

 

“Eh.. Some guy from the bible”

 

Carol looked back at Tara and Sophia, as they giggled and went onto talking about something else. “What was that?” Michonne asked when Carol looked ahead again. “Just a little game we used to play. You have to mention a historical person that starts with the last letter of the person the other said before.” Back when Carol had still been schooling her, she had had to come up with different ways to teach the subjects that Carol wasn’t very good at herself. Hershel had taught her a lot of things before he died, so had Dale. It was sad to think about, but in a way Carol was glad that Sophia was around to carry on all that knowledge.  
Michonne smiled, as they kept walking.

 

They had run out of fuel two days ago and they had run out of food last night. The food they had had in the church had only lasted so long, there was a lot of mouths to feed and not a lot of game to hunt these days. Everything was dry, food was hard to come by, water even harder. DC was still their destination; they had to find Glenn, Maggie and the others. Last thing they heard, they were still heading to DC, so they had to follow, in the hope of meeting up with them. Of course they hoped to find a safe place to stay too, but after Terminus, no one seemed to believe much in that idea. They didn’t trust strangers anymore and rightly so. No one was going to fool them like that again.

 

Now that they were going on foot, it would most likely be longer before they either got to DC or found the others. But everyone seemed in relatively good spirits, despite of the unbearably hot weather and the fact that they didn’t have any food.  
They kept splitting up into small groups and heading away from the road to look for water or food. It was mostly Daryl that did the hunting, although both Beth and Sophia were decent trackers. But who he brought with him to look for water changed around a lot.  
“Carol?” She turned to see Daryl, gesturing towards the trees at the side of the road. Carol nodded and looked back at Tara, who had mentioned earlier that she wanted to come on the next search. The three of them wandered off the road and into the woods. They walked in silence, as they normally did when Daryl was hunting. Carol stopped when she felt Tara’s hand on her upper arm. She signaled to look to their right. “Daryl” He stopped, turned and walked back towards them.

 

Up to their right there was four greenhouses lined up, with a fence like the one they had had around the prison. The fence went beyond the greenhouses though. Maybe it was a big property or a nursery. Carol couldn't see a house anywhere, but maybe the people had set up camp in one of the greenhouses. Because there were people, they could see two, but there might have been more. That was probably what had caught Tara's attention, more than the buildings. There was a quick exchange of looks between the three of them, “What do we do?” Tara asked quietly as they watched a man drive a wheelbarrow out from one of the greenhouses. “Go back and tell the others” Carol suggested, Daryl nodded and they turned and walked back to the road.


	2. Holding on and letting go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The look on his face was one that she had only seen when he looked at them. A strange mix of pride and yearning. Of course Carol couldn’t say what exactly he was thinking, but she had an idea. She knew that he cared for Sophia, he had ever since he had saved her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still so excited about all the positive feedback - so thanks for that :) 
> 
> And thanks to Nadja for reading these and keeping me on track!

 

 

“How many people?”

 

“We only saw two, but there were probably more” Daryl said, looking around at Rick, Tara and Carol.

 

“A property that size. There could be a dozen or more” Carol offered, the others nodded.

 

Rick nodded and stepped away from them. Pacing back and forth, with that ‘go-away-I’m-thinking’ look on his face.  
Carol went over to stand next to Daryl as they watched him pace the asphalt. “What do you think we should do?”

 

Daryl shrugged, “They might have food”

 

This was true of course, Carol nodded. But then again, they couldn’t just barge in there and force the people to feed them. Or.. they couldn’t if they were more people than them. “But they probably have guns too”

 

Daryl glanced in her direction, looking like he was trying to figure out if she meant it as a joke or not.

 

Carol just blinked a few times at him, smiling innocently.

 

Daryl huffed and looked back to Rick.

 

\------------------

 

Rick didn’t come to a decision, not a definitive one. He decided that they should stay across the road, in a fair distance and keep a look on them, before they decided what to do. The area was too dry to find anything and that nursery might be their only chance of food and water for the next long while.

 

While the others secured the camp, Rick and Michonne went over to spy on the nursery, to get a better look of the place and thereby also an idea of what they should do.

 

By the time it got dark, they had set up a perimeter and cleared the area of walkers. It always stirred Carol’s protective and motherly side to see Sophia kill walkers. The only good thing about it was that Carol knew that it meant she could protect herself. Other than that, she hated that Sophia had to ever do a thing like that. No matter how old and strong she got, she was still her little baby. Her shy and sweet girl, who had become so much more now.

 

Sitting around the fire that was only built for warmth and built low so they wouldn’t attract attention. Sophia was curled into her mother’s side. That was always something that Carol enjoyed, most of the time these days, she was all about independence and not wanting her mother to fuss over her. Like teenagers do. So Carol made sure to enjoy it all the more when Sophia stopped acting like an adult and came to sit with her mom for a while.

 

Resting her head atop Sophia’s, Carol starred into the air. Once she caught herself at it, her eyes drifted across the others around the quiet fire. There she caught Daryl starring at them. It wasn’t the first time and she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last either. But it wasn’t just her, it was her and Sophia. It wasn’t so much the fact that he was looking, but the way that he was looking, that she noticed. The look on his face was one that she had only seen when he looked at them. A strange mix of pride and yearning. Of course Carol couldn’t say what exactly he was thinking, but she had an idea. She knew that he cared for Sophia, he had ever since he had saved her. He was proud of her, just like she was herself. The yearning could only be because he didn’t have any kids of his own. Or so she thought anyway.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Hope was not an easy thing to come by, in a world ruled by walkers. Carol knew that she should keep hoping, like Daryl tried so hard to make her. And she did try, but it felt like clinging onto the strings of a kite, in a big storm. If she started to loosen her grip just a bit, it was all gone. It had been so many days and there was still no sight of Sophia. It seemed like the only one who was trying to find her was Daryl, everyone else seemed to have other things that took priority. Like walkers in the well or runs to the pharmacy. Carol acted like she understood, but in reality she wanted to scream at them. That well had not been their only source of water, and yet it had been more important than finding her little girl? If it hadn’t been for Daryl, Carol would have walked out there to find her herself, even though she would most likely be killing herself by doing so.  
Shane didn’t have a problem voicing his disbelief of Sophia being alive and of course that affected Carol, because he made sense. The chances of finding her girl alive got slimmer every day. But she couldn’t give up, not until she knew for sure. Not as long as Daryl kept looking.

 

Carol, Lori, Beth, Patricia and Maggie had been preparing the dinner that Carol and Lori wanted to cook for all of them, both Hershel’s family and their group. It felt odd to suddenly be cooking in a kitchen again, like she had suddenly been set back in time.  
There was a bit of commotion when Dale came through the dining room, looking like he had seen a ghost. “Carol, you better come”. Immediately she felt her heart sink into her stomach, she did not like that look on his face. Quickly making their way outside, Carol had overtaken Dale before they got off the porch, walking quickly towards the RV. There she could see Andrea, looking out over the field. She didn’t hear anything but her heart pounding in her ears as she followed Andrea’s line of sight and saw two figures walking across the field: Both walking slowly, one clutching at his side, the other smaller figure, looked like she tried to support him. Daryl and “Sophia!” She cried out, unaware of the fact that she had started running towards them.  
“Sophia!” her voice was high-pitched and desperate as her legs carried her faster than she had ever thought she could run.  
Sophia broke away from Daryl and ran towards her mother. Within seconds Carol had her arms wrapped tightly around her little girl, hugging her against her chest, as her heart would stop racing. The relief was instant, as soon as she had spotted Sophia she knew that everything would be okay. Her girl was safe, nothing else matted quite as much as that. Falling to her knees, she did not loosen her grip but started showering her dirty little face in tearful kisses and muttered “thank god”s.

 

Carol didn’t even notice the smile on Daryl’s exhausted face, or the cheers of the rest of the group as they gathered around them. All she could see was Sophia.

 

 

Later that evening, when Sophia had eaten far more than she should and had fallen asleep on the couch in Hershel’s living room. Carol took up a tray of food for Daryl.

 

“Brought you some dinner.. you must be starving” she said as Daryl tried to cover himself up with the sheets.

 

Once he was covered up he just looked at her for a moment, before looking away.

 

“You saved her life”

 

“Didn’t do anything Shane or Rick wouldn’t have done”

 

“I know.. You’re every bit as good as them.. every bit” Carol knew that she would never be able to thank him enough for what he had done for her and for Sophia. “But _you_ saved her” He was the one who had taken charge of the search and had put more hours into it than anyone else. Carol knew that and she was beyond grateful for it.  
Leaning down over him, she noticed that he flinched, but kissed him on his temple anyway. “Thank you” she whispered, kissing his temple once more for good measure. Standing up again she smiled, more widely and heartfelt than he had probably ever seen her do. He watched her silently as she left the room, the tips of his ears turning a deep shade of pink.


	3. I keep asking why

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Ed had still been alive, Sophia had seen her mom go through some tough times, she had been through them herself too. Ed had not been a good father to her. But when he died Carol had thought that she’d never have to let Sophia see that side of her again. The one that could be broken down in tears when Sophia came home from school, or be serving breakfast with a black eye, or trying not to wince too much about a couple of bruised rips. Carol didn’t want Sophia to have to see her mother hurt anymore, physically or mentally. But there was no stopping it now.

 

Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was the fluorescent lights in the ceiling, not so much the lamp, but the fact the lights were on. Electricity. From there his eyes wandered to what looked to be concrete walls, no windows. But for some reason somebody had managed to hang a painting of some flowers. There was a rug on the floor, next to the bed where he was laying, a bedside table, and a dresser against the opposite wall. Guess someone was trying to make the place look homey.

 

Trying to sit up, Daryl immediately regretted it and fell back down onto the pillow with a groan. He lifted a hand to his head and found that someone had rolled a bandage on it. I hurt like a son of a bitch, even more so now that he had tried to move.

 

What the hell was going on?

 

The last thing he remembered was being out scouting on that nursery with Sasha and Carol. There had been a small group of walkers coming out of nowhere, from behind the trees. Carol and Sasha had been a bit ahead at the time, when the walkers attacked him from behind. Daryl hadn’t seen or heard them and then they were suddenly there. Daryl wasn’t normally one to be caught off guard, but this time he barely got to turn around and then everything went black and now he was here. Wherever the hell here was.

 

 

\-----------------

 

 

Sometimes the days seemed so alike that it was hard to tell them apart. Carol had lost count of how many days it had been since they left Atlanta. Not being on the road helped a bit, even if they didn’t have any shelter. They were staying where they were, at least for today, while they checked out the nursery, trying to figure out if they should take it or not.  
Sasha, Daryl and herself, were scouting at the south side of it, trying to spot a way in, or to see if there were more people than the two they had seen the day before. So far they hadn’t seen anything. Daryl was checking a snare Rick had put up the day before, meaning that Carol and Sasha got a little bit ahead of him.

 

Then suddenly there was a shout, Carol spun around, hand already on her gun. “Daryl!” Carol screamed terrified as she saw the walkers and then Daryl disappear among them. “No no no – Daryl!” She took off running towards him. She would have made it too, if it hadn't been for Sasha, grabbing her and holding her back.

 

“They’re too many” Sasha claimed. The gunshots and Carol’s screaming had just brought out more. There were more approaching from all around them.

 

“No.. no” She murmured, shaking her head, constantly keeping her eyes on where Daryl had gone down. They were tearing him apart, she knew that, even if she couldn’t see it. She felt herself go numb and fall back against Sasha’s arms.

 

“We need to use them as a distraction.. come on, we’ve gotta go” Sasha all but dragged Carol away from there, while the walkers gathered around what was left of Daryl.

 

 

 

The walk back to the camp was slow, Sasha nearly carried Carol the whole way, as he legs kept failing her. Tears kept running down her cheeks and she kept sobbing, but it was as if her mind hadn’t quite understood that he was gone. Her body clearly did, her mind just hadn’t caught up to it yet. She just couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that Daryl suddenly wasn’t there anymore. For so long he had been the person she counted on and trusted the most, out of all of them. And now he was just gone.

 

When they got back to the camp, without Daryl, and everybody turned to look at them Carol felt her gut twist and turn in all sorts of unpleasant ways. She couldn’t even stick around to hear Sasha’s explanation of what had happened. Instead she walked away from the group, her vision blurred by the tears in her eyes. She didn’t make it very far before she fell to her knees. On her hands and knees, her stomach heaved, like she was going to be sick, but nothing came out. Nothing but strangled sobs.

 

She wasn’t thinking about everything that he had been, or everything they had done and seen... survived, together. In fact she didn’t think at all. It was as if her mind had stopped working all together, because it couldn’t make sense of what had just happened, and all she did was act on instinct.  
It felt like a nightmare, it couldn’t be real, it just couldn’t.

 

Just to think that Daryl wouldn’t be there, looking out for her and Sophia, like they were his first priority, or to huff out a grunt of a laugh, when she made an inappropriate joke, was a horrible thought. It had become almost a hobby of hers to try and make him smile, with her name calling and jokes. But that was all gone now. Daryl had been her best friend, but she had loved him like he was far more than that. To her he was.

 

“Mama?” Carol wasn’t aware of how much time had passed, when she looked up at Sophia. Her cheeks were tearstained and there was a clear look of heartbreak on her sweet face. It felt as if her heart broke all over again, just from seeing Sophia hurt too. She looked scared as she watched her mother with more tears in her eyes than that girl had probably ever seen. While Ed had still been alive, Sophia had seen her mom go through some tough times, she had been through them herself too. Ed had not been a good father to her. But when he died Carol had thought that she’d never have to let Sophia see that side of her again. The one that could be broken down in tears when Sophia came home from school, or be serving breakfast with a black eye, or trying not to wince too much about a couple of bruised rips. Carol didn’t want Sophia to have to see her mother hurt anymore, physically or mentally. But there was no stopping it now.

 

It hadn’t occurred to Carol how Sophia would react. She and Daryl were close, he was like an uncle to her, a man she looked up to. He had taught her how to survive, to track, hunt, and kill. Sophia didn’t have a father anymore, but she did have several male role models, Daryl was just the one she had bonded the most with. Like mother like daughter.

 

Sitting down on the ground, Carol opened her arms to her daughter, while she tried to control her breath and her emotions. It wasn’t any use though, as soon as Sophia crawled into her arms, curling up to her like she was 6 years old all over again, Carol lost whatever grip she had had on her grief. Sophia’s quiet sobs mixed with her own, as Carol rocked her daughter back and forth while they both cried.

 

 

\-------------------

 

 

Without the windows, it was hard to know how much time had passed, but it would have to be hours, before someone came into the room.

 

“Good, you’re awake”

 

Daryl wanted to move, but whenever he tried to, the whole room started spinning.  
The man came closer to the bed, he didn’t look like a doctor or anything like that. If anything, he looked more like a military man. Hair cut really short, clean shaven, clean clothes, hell his shirt even looked like it had been ironed.  
Daryl reached for the spot where he kept his knife, but found it missing.

 

“We took you weapons … just a precaution” He shrugged, with a slight grin on his face, like he knew he had the upper hand.

 

Daryl hated that, he felt like punching him just for looking like that. “Where am I?”

 

“Safe” he answered simply. “We found you, out there. Those things were all over you – no one else in sight.. Hadn’t it been for us you would have died out there”

 

Daryl glanced at him, narrowing his eyes. Sasha and Carol had just left him there? No, he didn’t believe that. They wouldn’t.

 

“You’re free to join us, but I think it’ll be a few days before you can go anywhere, you hit your head pretty hard when you went down” The creep, who still hadn’t told Daryl his name, smiled and headed back for the door. “I’ll have one of the girls bring you some food later. For now, just rest” Then he left.

 

So they were more than just a couple of people. He looked around again, was he … underground? He honestly couldn’t tell. It could just be a concrete building, but there hadn’t been any near the nursery. Daryl tried to sit up again and actually managed to stay seated, even if he had to hold onto the bed, not to fall back down. He had to get up, he had to get out of there and back to the others. The creep hadn’t locked the door. Maybe he didn’t think that Daryl would be able to get up, and he wasn’t – not yet. But he wasn’t staying put here any longer than he absolutely had to.

 

 

\-------------

 

 

They didn’t do much else that day, after ..  
Someone went back to where it had happened and found Daryl’s crossbow, but nothing else.

 

Everyone was quiet, in shock she supposed. They didn’t stay up for long that night, Rick had decided that they should move on in the morning, so they all needed their rest.

 

Carol couldn’t sleep and it wasn’t because of Tyreese’s snoring. She had felt a bit like a walker, for the remaining part of the day. She had spent most of her time staring into space, hardly noticing if she was crying or not. At some point, someone had handed her a bottle with a bit of water, Carol knew they didn’t have a lot of that, so she only took a small sip before she handed it back. But other than that, nothing had happened. A few of the others tried to talk to her, but she barely noticed them.

 

The headache she had now was almost bad enough for her to notice, but it wasn’t what kept her from sleeping either. It was the fact that she wasn’t sure.  
He hadn’t screamed he had yelled but not screamed when they tore him apat, she hadn’t seen any blood, hadn’t seen his body. And what stuck out like a sore thumb the most: there was still an arrow on the string of that crossbow. Daryl wouldn’t have gone down without a fight, he would have pulled that trigger, whether he was dying or not.

 

Maybe he had gotten away somehow. She knew that that was a stupid thought. With what they had seen, it was pretty simple to connect the dots. But losing him was hard enough, but not knowing was worse. She couldn’t leave here without knowing for sure. She had to know for sure, she had to find his body, or whatever might be left of him.

 

Taking a last look at Sophia, who was lying right beside her, Carol pressed a light kiss to her forehead before she got up. Rick was on watch, but didn’t say anything as Carol made her way out of the camp. It wasn’t unusual that someone had to get up to relieve themselves during the night. But Carol didn’t stop when she had made it past the perimeter. Instead she walked right back to where Daryl had fallen.

 

There was plenty of moonlight that night, enough for Carol to see that there was very little blood on the ground. If he had really been torn apart by them (the thought alone made her stomach turn), there would have been more blood. Swallowing a sob, as tears came back to her eyes, Carol got up and started looking over the area. He wasn’t dead, this wasn’t right. She felt a small glimmer of hope as she walked back the way those walkers had come and kept walking until she nearly fell over something metal. After regaining her balance, she looked back to see that it was a hatch and what she had nearly fallen over was the handle to open it. There was nothing around it to give it away, that there was a hatch there, no area of concrete, or anything of the like. It was all covered by grass, even the hatch was, although that was probably fake.

 

Carol looked around to see if there were any others or walkers around, before she tried to open the hatch. But it was locked from the inside.  
Stepping away from it, Carol pulled out her gun. If there was anyone down there they would have heard that.

 

Sure enough, a few minutes later. The hatch opened and three men came out. Carol immediately pointed her gun at one of them, cursing herself for not bringing another gun. “Where’s Daryl?” She asked in a demanding tone.

 

The three men circled around her, just fast enough for Carol to feel like she wasn’t the one in control of this situation. One of them were constantly behind her and all of them were big, strong, and armed. “So that’s his name” one of them mocked, “He wasn’t very talkative”

 

“You let him go or I’ll blow your brains out” Carol cocked her handgun, aiming it at the man in front of her.

 

“Aren’t you a little outnumbered to be making threats like that?” another asked. The man in front of her nodded as some sort of signal to the others.

 

Carol panicked and shot the man in front of her, straight through the head.

 

Then everything went black.


End file.
